User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Whew this isn't an easy read, but it's a necessary read. I don't think I really even read the summary of this book before diving in and part of me wished I would have. It didn't take away from the importance of the novel, but this is one that you need to be mentally prepared for before diving in. CW: graphic depictions of slavery, death of a child (twice), repeated rape, mental/emotional/physical abuse, torturing of slaves (particularly in whippings), graphic depictions of imprisonment.Yellow Wife can be misleading if readers just look at the cover and title. While perusing my library's audiobook collection, I came across this book and thought it might an interesting read. Little did I know, it's based on the story of Mary Lumpkin who was an imprisoned sex slave to Robert Lumpkin. Similar to Mary's story, readers follow Pheby Brown from her time of being a slave on a plantation to her time spent with the jailer who owns a prison known as Devil's Half Acre. I'm very intentional about my use of the term "sex slave" because as described through Pheby's narrative, the physical relationship existed out of the need to survive not because of true love or attraction. This is vital to keep in mind as readers follow the fast paced narrative created by Johnson.
It is important to note that
Yellow Wife is often compared to other slave narratives and while I understand the comparison, this book stands on it's own. It captures an interesting aspect of slavery: the experiences of those identified as biracial, those slaves who have to navigate their enslavement in a very different way. Pheby, understanding her privilege in being fair skinned, believes that her slave master will set her free and send her to the North to get an education. Unfortunately, the favoritism shown to Pheby pisses off the slave master's wife. Johnson does a great job illustrating the tumultuous relationship that has existed between White women and Black women especially during slavery. When White men raped and abused Black women resulting in children, White women took to blaming Black women without holding their husband responsible. The ill treatment that Black women often faced at the hands of the wives of slave masters is gratuitous. Nevertheless, Pheby eventually finds herself in the ownership of one of the most notorious jail owners in Virginia. His insatiable bloodlust will make readers cringe to their core. However, Johnson challenges readers to press forward, to engage with the fast paced narrative that keeps all on the edge of their seats until the conclusion. Pheby quickly learns that regardless of her skin tone, her ability to pass for White she is no better than those slaves kept in the jailhouse.
Yellow Wilfe then becomes a story about survival and motherhood. Pheby endures the suffering for the sake of her children. This story tackles so much and does so very well. From colorism to the weaponizing of Black hair to motherhood.
This is not a novel to be missed in 2021. It's one of the best historical fiction novels that I've ever read. The writing was phenomenal with a fast paced plot and excellent character development. I'm grateful to Sadeqa Johnson for listening to the ancestors and taking the opportunity to capture this story. I highly recommend this book.
Rating: really liked it
This is a Historical Fiction book. This book takes place in the South (Virginia, but some of the places talked about in the book is in North Carolina) during the time people had slaves. We follow young female slave called Pheby Delores Brown. I have to say this book was hard to read at times, but I really think everyone should read this book. It is a part of the Sothern past, and we cannot forget it. I feel the characters came to live in this book. I think this is the first book that was told in the point of view of a slave that I have read. This book was so beautifully written, and Miss Pheby touched my heart so many ways. I did not want to put this book down. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (Simon & Schuster) or author (Sadeqa Johnson) via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review about how I feel about this book, and I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.
I have since brought a hard cover copy of this book.
Rating: really liked it
Yellow Wife by Sedequa Johnson is a 2021 37 ink publication.
Harrowing, emotional, incredible historical saga! Pheby, on the cusp of her eighteenth birthday, a time when her white father, Jacob, had promised to free her, her fortune reversed, and she found herself being groomed to become the mistress of a slave trader, a cruel man, named Rubin Lapier.
Rubin presented Pheby as his ‘wife’, their children legitimized by his acknowledgement of them. Yet, Pheby is not free, she is at the mercy of Rubin, and she dared not cross him, for fear of losing her children.
But, when the love of her life, and the father of her first- born son, arrives at Rubin’s ‘jail’, Pheby takes a risk that could cost her everything, bringing into sharp focus the steps she must take to ensure all her children have a chance at a life she herself was robbed of….
I don’t know quite what to say…
This novel is so rich, the characters so real, I felt I right there with Pheby every step of the way. Equal parts heartbreaking, and triumphant, and inspiring, this story takes us through Pheby’s life from her late teens, though the raising of her children to adulthood, and beyond.
Pheby’s life started out sheltered, having been close to her Aunt, who taught her to read and play the piano. Her father’s wife was resentful and took the first opportunity she had to exact revenge, throwing all of Pheby’s future plans into a tailspin.
While her life was never really her own, she made the best of her situation- not just for her own sake, but for her children, and as it turns out, for others as well.
Pheby soothes her aching soul for the girls she is forced to prep, to enter the ‘Fancy Girl’ trade, by keeping a journal about the girls, honoring them, by remembering them, their names, their humanity.
This is a topic that rarely gets much ink in our history books. Pheby’s preparations for these girls tells a story all its own- a shockingly horrendous trade. Pheby’s narration doesn’t explore the details, but the reader gets the idea, and it definitely made me squirm in my seat.
The realities of slavery through Pheby’s eyes are harrowing, disgusting, and emotional. These passages are not for the faint of heart and I admit I spent a night or two, tossing and turning, thinking of the horrors described in this book.
While Pheby escaped the ‘Fancy Girl’ fate that was intended for her, she lived her life without the one man she truly loved, but her selflessness, and sacrifices, saved many, making her a true unsung heroine.
Dear Pheby, beyond all her challenges, with her own personal heartbreak, her battle with her own principles, she managed to carve out a life for herself.
It was an imperfect environment, though, and one that Pheby had to risk, to save her son. There were heart wrenching punishments she had to accept, concessions that had to be made, but at the heart of it all, Pheby is a mother, a fact at the center of her precarious choices, one that gave her both courage and strength to help others, in hopes of both protecting some- and saving others she loved.
Overall, the author did a great job- with research, with characterization, and with bringing our attention to yet another part of slavery seldom explored or written about. Pheby is a character I will think of often and this is a story that will stay with me for a long time to come…
Rating: really liked it
"Yellow Wife" by Sadeqa Johnson is beautifully written African American Historical Fiction!
Pheby Delores Brown is born a slave on the Bell Plantations in Charles City, Virginia. Her mother the plantation's medicine woman, her father the plantation owner, Master Jacob.
Master Jacob and his sister, Miss Sally favors Pheby for her light skin and natural beauty. Miss Sally teaches her to read, play the piano and spends her days with Pheby. Master Jacob protects Pheby and promises her freedom at 18 years old.
Missus Delphina, Jacob's wife is jealous and openly cruel to Pheby. While Jacob is away on business she quickly sells Pheby to slave traders and arranges for her transport to the infamous Devils Half Acre Jail in Richmond, Virginia. This is a filthy jail where slaves are imprisoned under horrific conditions. Slaves are beaten, starved, left in cells surrounded by human waste and eventually auctioned off to the highest bidder.
The jail owner, Rubin Lapier sees Pheby and rescues her away from the auction block. No white woman will marry Rubin based on his reputation as the jailer. But Rubin wants children and so begins his plan to make Pheby Mistress of the Devils Half Acre Jail.
Pheby quickly begins to understand she has worth as a mulatto woman and perhaps her life with Rubin will be better than most white woman. She strikes a deal with Rubin and does what she has to do to survive and protect the ones she loves.
The realities of what it felt like being a slave through Pheby's protagonist view point is difficult to listen to through this book. The cruelties, the humiliations, the mental turmoil, family separated, the circumstances of being someone's property - all of this and more is extremely daunting.
I listened to the audiobook narrated by Robin Miles who reads with appropriate emotion for this heartbreaking story. It feels like Pheby is there with you telling her story. Her wonderful voice inflections add the drama specific to the context and her voicing of the different characters is realistic and believable!
This amazing story was well researched by this author. It began with a family visit to the Richmond Slave Trail and discovering the half acre Lumpkin Jail where jailer, Robert Lumpkin lived with his mulatto wife, Mary and their five children. Thus the catalyst for this beautiful historical fiction story. Author, Sadeqa Johnson admits it was difficult to write about to a degree, but if African American ancestors could live it, then she could write about it.
I love this story. I love the characters and the deep character development. I love how this story created deep emotions in me.
I highly recommend this book to everyone. This is a book that needs to be read and shared, then shared over and over again!
Rating: really liked it
“My bruises might not look like yours, but they are there.”
A heartbreaking one! But still constantly leaves you with this feeling of hope since the characters constantly exhibited this.
Johnson definitely does not hold back on the horrors that Phoebe experienced and witnessed. We are there with her through all this, and this was in first pov so you know it immediately feels really personal. Her character grows both physically and mentally throughout the book, and none of it felt rushed. The evolution of the relationships characters have is quite important in their personal lives and the overall development of books, and Johnson does this well! We witness all kinds of characters, even the most horrible kind. There were some truly heart-wrenching parts in this one, but I’m glad that like a lot of books that reflect on slavery, a lot was kept real!
The jailer’s relationship with Phoebe was amazingly uncomfortable. Johnson obviously did this on purpose, and she definitely achieved her goal. Another great example of you never truly know the kind of decisions you’re gonna take unless you end up in the situation. I’m still not sure what made her different enough for the jailer to treat her better than the others.
There was a little romance in this one, but I didn’t really care for it.
Overall, Phoebe was definitely a strong woman!! She put herself in angsty situations for the sake of the people she loved. The parts where she was reminded time and time again that even though she has been treated a bit better than the others, she was still a slave, really was a reminder to us all. This is also inspired by real-life events and people, so as the curious person I was, I definitely looked more up.
Very satisfied with the ending!
Rating: really liked it
This story is inspired by the story of Mary Lumpkin and Lumpkin’s jail in Richmond, Virginia.
Bell Plantation, Charles City, Virginia, 1850. Pheby Delores Brown, after losing her mother and after broken promise of freedom, she is being sold to traders. At an auction, she is “rescued by gentleman’s kindness.” Rubin Lapier is the owner of the jail, where Pheby spent the night before the auction. And now is one of the workers at the jail sewing, mostly mending clothing. Her constant companion is “the click-clack sounds” of slaves’ iron confinements and “the moaning from inside the jail…” Should she follow in the footsteps of a woman she saw at the market? A woman like her, who isn’t free, “yet she lived a life better than some white women.” There is a reason why the jail is called the Devil’s Half Acre. Whenever she thinks she can endure this place, there is a reminder that she cannot.
The fastest page-turner ever and heart-pounding read. On one hand, the jail owner, known as the Bully Trader and on the other, a beautiful young slave woman. He is one of the cruelest people if not the cruelest person in town. He trades slaves without any scruples and enforces brutal punishments when requested by other slave owners. He is also a master of his “wife,” who is forced first to make the right decision for herself and later for her children. Once a mother she needs to protect her children at any cost.
This story brings heart-wrenching scenes of flogging, of slaves bidding, degrading transactions and agony of mothers being separated from their children and other members of the family. It’s all very real.
This is a story of an extraordinary woman, who learns that as a mulatto she is worth more than a black slave. She was promised freedom at the age of eighteen. When that eludes her, she weighs her options very carefully. Does she want to be a run-away slave or make a life out of situation the life presented her with?
With riveting prose the pages fly and the heart beats for the astonishing heroine. Well-developed character pulls you into the story immediately and stirs emotions within you. A grim time of history masterfully narrated.
Source: ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: really liked it
I love historical fiction, but I usually stay away from this time period. I end up crying all the way through it and mad at the ignorance. So needless to say, yes, I cried over these pages. A mother's love is endless. It will go through the depths of hell to provide safety for our children. For even a sliver of hope for it. Pheby did what she had to survive. To make sure her children survived. I can't wrap my mind around on how it would be in her position. I wouldn't disrespect her by pretending too. Excellent read.
Rating: really liked it
Note: I received a free copy of this book, in exchange here is my honest review.
Uhhhhhhh….. my heart aches!! 💔 This was such a powerful and heart wrenching read. Pheby was an amazingly strong willed and determined character. ❤️ But the message of motherhood and the utter nature of giving oneself over completely, to ensure your own child’s safety, is so intense and true. 🥰 This was a difficult and amazing read!
Thank you @goodreads @sadeqasays and @simonandschuster #goodreadsgiveaway
Rating: really liked it
4+ stars!
A powerful, well-written, intriguing and harrowing story that sheds light on one of the worst times in our history - slavery. Slaves are at the centre of this story set in the 1850’s - on a plantation and in a prison setting. The way the slaves are treated is horrific, devastating and sickening. This book provides some insight on what it took for the slaves to survive both physically and mentally.
I was fascinated to see the way in which the slaves created a sense of family and belonging within their own community. As horrid and awful as their situations were, they found ways to be happy and thankful within their own circle of family. A true testament to the strength of the human spirit.
While I really liked the main character, Pheby, I felt as though she was kept an arms length away, preventing me from an emotional connection. I felt for her, but not deeply. This book was not as heavy as I had anticipated and it took me a third of the way to feel an investment in the story. I had hoped for a much more intense emotional connection which made this slightly disappointing even though I did enjoy the entire book and appreciated learning about this time in our history. The authors note at the end makes this book more impactful as it explains how the author was inspired by true events.
A beautifully written historical fiction novel that I recommend.
Rating: really liked it
The Yellow Wife is an extremely well done historical fiction, but it’s also incredibly sad. I feel like my timing to listen to this is perfect. Just this week, the Florida Senate passed a bill to make it illegal to make white people feel “uncomfortable”. This book should be required reading as to why we should be uncomfortable when we remember the past. While it is fiction, it’s based on a real prison and real people. The story is graphic in its details of the evils played out against the slaves. It’s not an easy story. But it’s a necessary one.
Pheby Brown is the daughter of the plantation owner. She was promised her freedom on her 18th birthday. But he dies before he can fulfill his promise and his wife sells her. She finds herself the mistress of the owner of a slave prison and trading site in Richmond.
The story deals with the sacrifices and the moral juggling Pheby is forced to undertake to keep her children safe. My heart was in my throat while I listened to this.
And I applaud Simon Schuster Audio for including the author’s note (something often missing in other HF audio books).
Robin Miles was a fabulous narrator.
Rating: really liked it
Dealing with the same Hell.
Just different devils.....
Sadeqa Johnson presents a solid, walking-over-broken-glass historical fiction novel centered on plantation life in Charles City, Virginia. To her well focused credit, Johnson took a nugget of an idea while walking the Richmond Slave Trail with her family and transformed it into an outstanding novel. There was indeed a jailer who lived on a half acre of land overseeing a prison where slaves were bought and sold. He lived with his mulatto wife and five children. And there was the first flicker of light guiding the way for this outstanding novel.
We will come to know Pheby Delores Brown, a slave by her birth, but set to the side by Master Jacob and his sister. Light of skin and touched with natural beauty, Pheby was given privilege. She learned to read and to play piano and was doted on by Miss Sally. Her duties were light. Master Jacob gifted Pheby with the promise that she would be set free on her eighteenth birthday and would be sent to Massachusetts to attend a girls' school there. But those devils take their places and grab the reins to veer off the righteous path time and time again.
Master Jacob is away on his business travels and his wife, Missus Delphina, has the opportunity to spill her wrath upon Pheby. In a fit of rage, she sentences Pheby to a life at the abominable Devil's Half Acre in Richmond run by its namesake, Rupert Lapier, a devil of a man. He immediately takes to Pheby and sets her up as the mistress of his jail. They will have children together. But Pheby has her eyes set on freedom.
Sadeqa Johnson creates Pheby as a multi-layered character. As much as her advantages while living at Bell Plantation made her prosper as a young lady, it never served her well as she was thrust into a horrendous life that she only observed on the peripheral. She knew of the unspeakable inhumane treatment of slaves, but she was originally at arm's length from it. Her naivete is viewed on the surface as to her relationship with the slave worker, Essex Henry, who will impact her life greatly.
We will ponder Pheby's actions throughout the novel. For survival's sake, she dances with the devil. Please note: Johnson includes many graphic scenes of horror throughout her novel. She never sugar coats the abominations of slavery and its dehumanizing aftermath. Yellow Wife is a stark and long hard look at what transpired during this time in history. But it also includes "the rising".....from the depths of Hell and the suppression of even breath, valiant men and women found their voices and their footholds from beyond these clutches from an evil that still whispers its vile message even today.
Rating: really liked it
A beautifully written historical fiction set mostly in Virginia 1850. This one touches on so many raw emotions ....love, hate, resentment, fright, loss, family whether it be conventional or not. Well researched and fast moving storyline that tells such a deep emotional story of the slaves and being sold, separated from everything they ever knew and how loved ones are lost due to nobody simply caring. Pheby's story is one that will stay with you for a long time. If you liked the Kitchen House this one is for you. I highly recommend it.
Rating: really liked it
4.5 ⭐
A page-turner!
Yellow Wife is 1850s historical fiction that flows like a thriller. We follow Pheby's journey from Bell plantation where she was born to a different life at one of the largest and most notorious slave holding facilities in Virginia.
There's so much tragedy in this book, but what kept me glued were the characters. The author did not hold back on how the enslaved were punished.
In the author's note, Pheby's character was inspired by Mary Lumpkin. The jail in the story is of Robert Lumpkin's Jail in Richmond, VA.
Contains graphic content, cruelty, and torture.
Rating: really liked it
Heart-breaking, upsetting and a very moving fictional story that is interwoven with real historical events and real places, such as the Devil’s Acre. What makes this story even more poignant is the knowledge that the brutality and slavery did happen. Even the Plantations, a more civilised existence were still sites of oppression, and it brings to mind the horrors of slavery and the landowners who made it possible.
The main protagonist is Pheby Delores Brown, a child of mixed race who lives on the Bell Plantation in Virginia with her parents. After the tragic and untimely death of her mother, the education and freedom promised to Pheby on her eighteenth birthday never materialises and instead she is shipped off by the new mistress to a jail in Richmond Virginia.
Catching the eye of the jailer, Marse, Pheby becomes his mistress, “The Yellow Wife”. A title that affords her an easier existence compared to the other slaves that were worked tirelessly, tortured, shackled, and sold and for those that were no longer of any value, murdered. Given a higher status among slaves, does not mean an uncomplicated and pain free existence, for Pheby has no freedom and frequently tends to bruising left on her by the brutal father of her children and is forced to watch the flogging of the man she loves and father of her first child Henry Essex.
This was a fantastic book and beautifully written. I felt the author confronted a dark period in history in a way that was respectful of the people and educational for us readers that are still learning the stories from around the world in the 18th and 19th Century that have shaped our world today.
Sometimes a book like this encourages people to reflect on the prejudices that still exist whether its race, religion, sex, age, physicality, and wealth and is a reminder to keep moving forward, and society could still do better to remedy the disparities in society. I also think it is up to the authors who write books created around these dark periods and heart-breaking stories to write in a way that urges the reader to research and learn about the past and this author achieved it brilliantly. A fantastic read and highly recommended.
Rating: really liked it
It's so very hard to think that people in our past sold other people into slavery. Slavery ranks up there as a heinous awful crime against humanity and in the story of Yellow Wife, we do once again come to see, relive, and understand what happened those years ago to so many.
Pheby Delores Brown, a young mulatto girl is beautiful and she has been promised her freedom which she longs for. However, fate intervenes, as Pheby's mother and her plantation wealthy father, Master Jacob, take a path that leads to heartbreak and tragedy. after Jacob's sister's death, Jacob, takes on a new bride, a vicious woman who hates people of color and takes out her revenge on Pheby, for having been educated and taught the piano by Master Jacob's sister, Miss Sally. It burns within her that Pheby is Jacob's daughter and she plots at every turn to make Pheby's life miserable and painful.
As her hatred for Pheby escalates, Pheby becomes more and more attracted to Essex Henry, a stable hand, who wins Pheby's heart. Tragedy arrives when Pheby is sent to Lapier Jail located in Richmond, Virginia. There, the cruel master, of the jail, Lapier, is attracted to Pheby and instead of seeing her sold buys her. Unbeknownst to Pheby or Lapier, Pheby is pregnant by Essex who had escaped up North swearing he would come back to her. Pheby gives birth to a boy who she names Monroe. After Monroe's birth, Pheby's new quarters are in the home of Lapier. She is now his yellow wife and there becomes a slave to his whims and sexual desires. She acquiesces to all he wants for Lapier swears he will never separate her from Monroe.
Over the years, Pheby gives birth to five children, but there is always the fear of Lapier and his disdain for Monroe. Lapier keeps them apart and uses Monroe as a bargaining chip with the thought of selling him circling always. Pheby is a noble character, always putting the needs of her children before those of herself, always remembering the love she shared with Essex, so when Essex comes once again into her life, she makes the ultimate sacrifice.
This was a most entertaining and well researched story as the character of Pheby is based on a woman named Mary Lumpkin. The setting is reflective of the Lumpkin Jail in Richmond. This most riveting story exposed once again the hideous way in which slaves were treated. The scenes that were seen and heard at the jail were awful and exposed such cruelty that it broke my heart. It was gruesome and yet this story needs to be told and remembered for once in our country people were sold, people were chained, and people were treated like dogs at the hands of cruel and inhuman masters.
A definite recommendation for this wonderful historical fiction.
